Alexander E. Farrell, one of the leading experts
on strategies and solutions for a low-carbon world, died last week at 46.

Alex was at the center of a vibrant scholarly
community of researchers and scientists and
policy experts with a global reach. He was
Professor at the University of California's
Energy and Resources Group (ERG) and was deeply
involved with the Renewable and Appropriate
Energy Lab, working closely with Prof. Daniel
Kammen and others at RAEL. For the State of
California, he was involved in the most central
research and analysis projects for the Low Carbon
Fuel Standard and AB32, and he wrote and spoke
frequently about plug-in hybrids.

He often came up with new ways of looking at
problems and results, challenging both his
colleagues and the broad advocacy community. His
dedication inspired hundreds of students and many
more who followed his work. He style was always
to be open and to communicate complex ideas
simply and directly. We wonder who will take on
the projects he was going to be doing.

His family has suggested that contributions be
directed to the Alex Farrell Memorial Scholarship
Fund, Energy and Resources Group, 310 Barrows
Hall, #3050, Berkeley, CA 94720-3050.


ALEX FARRELL'S HOME PAGE
http://erg.berkeley.edu/erg/people/faculty/farrell.shtml
includes a list of publications and links to his
work on the Low Carbon Fuel Standard

His most recent publication on PHEVs
http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/1748-9326/3/1/014003/
was "An innovation and policy agenda for
commercially competitive plug-in hybrid electric
vehicles" by by D M Lemoine, D M Kammen and A E Farrell


MEDIA REPORTS
These give a clue to his profound impact on many people and institutions.

San Francisco Chronicle by Michael Taylor
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/19/BAOK1087DP.DTL

Michael O'Hare, a colleague and Professor at
Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy
http://www.samefacts.com/archives/personal_moment_/2008/04/goodbyes.php

Greentechmedia blog includes comments by Felix Kramer, Daniel Sperling
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/biofuel-transportation-communities-mourn-\
uc-berkeley-researcher-814.html

Associated Press story in San Diego Union Tribune
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20080418-1759-ca-obit-farrell.html


UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCEMENT & BIO
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/04/17_farrell.shtml
Energy expert Alex Farrell has died
By Robert Sanders, Media Relations | 17 April 2008

BERKELEY ­ Alexander E. Farrell, an associate
professor in the Energy and Resources Group at
the University of California, Berkeley, who
worked closely with state government over the
past year to chart a course to reduce
California's carbon emissions, died earlier this
week at his home in San Francisco. He was 46.

Alexander Farrell was a leading expert on
transportation fuels and the role of
transportation in climate change. (Jeffery Kahn/UC Berkeley photo)

Farrell, who joined the UC Berkeley faculty in
2003 and became director of the campus's
Transportation Sustainability Research Center in
2006, was recognized internationally as a leading
expert on transportation fuels and the role of
transportation in climate change. His research
interests included biofuels, hybrid electric
vehicles and hydrogen vehicles, the low-carbon
fuel standard and transportation sustainability.

"He was one of the leading lights in the area of
low-carbon fuels and energy systems, and his
career was on a dramatic rise," said colleague
Dan Kammen, a professor in the Energy and
Resources Group and of public policy who helped
recruit Farrell to UC Berkeley and co-authored
many papers with him, including a just-released
report on plug-in hybrid vehicles. "The
trajectory of his career and his contributions
were both impressive. Alex was a great mentor to
the graduate students in the group as well as to
students from across campus working on energy and sustainability."

As an example of the great demand for Farrell's
expertise, Farrell was due to testify at a
legislative hearing in Minnesota on April 15 on a
possible low-carbon fuel standard for that state, Kammen said.

Most recently, Farrell was the coordinating lead
author of a chapter on transportation for a major
study for the state on how California can
implement climate change policy through the use
of state and local policies, and on the role in
this effort of technological innovation in
transportation. This report from the state's
Economic and Technology Advancement and Advisory
Committee was submitted to the California Air Resources Board in February.

Last year, Farrell and Daniel Sperling, director
of UC Davis' Institute of Transportation Studies,
led two collaborative studies for the state
providing the first-ever blueprint for fighting
global warming by reducing the amount of carbon
emitted from transportation fuels.

"That report, commissioned by Governor
Schwarzenegger, has had a huge impact," Sperling
said. "It is being used as the basis for
California's low-carbon fuel standard and by an
expanding number of other states and countries, including the European Union."

During the preparation of those studies,
Farrell's management role, which included
consultation with constituencies ranging from
environmental and government organizations to
electricity and oil companies, was
"indispensable," Sperling said. "He was a
fabulous partner, collaborator, intellectual
leader and emerging superstar. His death is sad
and devastating personally, and professionally, it is a huge loss."

Last year, Farrell was asked to join The
Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels, a new
international panel of environmental, energy,
economic and cultural experts, to develop
standards by which nations and consumers can
judge biofuels and their impact on the
environment and society. According to Jason Mark,
program officer for The Energy Foundation in San
Francisco, Farrell was to be asked this week to
head a new group to develop national low-carbon
fuel standards similar to California's.

He also served on advisory committees for the
National Academy of Engineering and the National
Science Foundation and was a consultant for
various public and private organizations.

Born Jan. 1, 1962, in Miami, Fla., Farrell was
raised in New Jersey and graduated from the U.S.
Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1984 with a degree
in systems engineering. He served in the Navy as
an engineer aboard nuclear submarines from 1984
to 1989, and subsequently worked in private
industry before receiving his Ph.D. in energy
management and policy from the University of Pennsylvania in 1996.

After serving as a lecturer at the University of
Pennsylvania, he was appointed in 1997 as a
research fellow of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science and then received a
year-long post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard
University's John F. Kennedy School of
Government. In 1998, he joined Carnegie Mellon
University as a research engineer in the
Department of Engineering and Public Policy, and
from 2001 to 2003 served as executive director of
the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center.
He became an assistant professor of engineering
and public policy at Carnegie Mellon before
joining the UC Berkeley faculty in 2003. At UC
Berkeley, Farrell also was co-director of the
Pacific Region Combined Heat and Power Applications Center.

Farrell published over two dozen peer-reviewed
papers on energy and environmental policy topics
in journals such as Science, Environmental
Science & Technology, Environmental Research Letters and Energy Policy.

"Alex was brilliant, energetic, supportive,
insightful and caring, and he had a way of
challenging his colleagues and students to think
more critically even when they thought they
already were," said Tim Lipman, a UC Berkeley
colleague and the founding research director of
the Transportation Sustainability Research
Center. "His career had reached a point where his
loss is an enormous one, not just for the Energy
and Resources Group and the transportation
center, but also for the global transportation and energy community."

Farrell is survived by his mother, Alice Farrell,
of Harrisburg, Penn.; brothers, Mark of Portland,
Ore., and Brian of Portland, Maine; his sister,
Beth Ann Connolly of Harrisburg; two nieces and a
nephew. His father, Edward R. Farrell, died in 2006.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that
contributions in Farrell's memory be made to the
Alex Farrell Memorial Scholarship Fund, Energy
and Resources Group, 310 Barrows Hall, #3050,
Berkeley, CA 94720-3050. Please make checks out
to "Regents of the University of California."

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Felix Kramer fkramer@...
Founder California Cars Initiative
http://www.calcars.org
http://www.calcars.org/news-archive.html
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